Saturday 21 September 2013

Yes, it's time to ban the veil

"Smile please"

It is disingenuous for Muslims to claim that wearing the niqab or burka is Islamic.

The requirement to conceal the face does not feature anywhere in the Koran. It is an archaic, aristocratic custom originating in ancient Persia that spread to Byzantium and was later adopted by misogynistic Muslim society.

Many Muslims have been conditioned to conflate culture with religion and befuddle liberal Britain that this is a principle of religious freedom and human rights when it is neither.

It is against Islamic law for masked women to undertake a pilgrimage to Mecca or to perform their daily prayers.

If women are prevented from hiding their identity at Islam's holiest shrine, why is it necessary for them to do so here?

Britain must join France and Belgium in outlawing all public anonymity.

Anything less would amount to sexist discrimination against British men who are not permitted to conceal their identity in public.

There.

That's rather well phrased don't you think?

Trouble is, those are not my words; they appeared in a letter to the editor of The Daily Telegraph earlier this week.

I wish that I could have phrased the issue so well and so succinctly.

The author?.................now let me see........

.....of course, it was none other than Imam Dr Taj Hargey of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford.


Photo: www.iconophilia.net

5 comments:

  1. Pope Francis photographing his "Anonymous Christian" friends???

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  2. Remember seeing this letter Richard, glad you posted on it. An important piece of information. Thanks.

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  3. It is unnatural to cover one's face, generally. However, people ought only be compelled by the state to uncover their faces in certain situations where it is necessary for people to see a person's face. It is unreasonable to expect any person to engage "face to face" with a faceless person. I would not engage in any any substantial way with a person who covers his face/hides his identity. A person with a covered face is being dishonest with those he "meets".

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  4. Right. I think it's okay to cover your face because you are just recovering from some kind of facial surgery, burns or you are out in some kind of extreme weather (dust storm, blizzard, artic temps, or working with toxic or dangerous materials (welding, cleaning a hazardous material site), otherwise, how do I know you are not a criminal? How can I relate to you?

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  5. Some women may want to wear the veil as a statement. However, I don't believe it is fanciful to say that the majority are more than likely co-erced by men. Those are the women you see walking several paces behind the man, who is almost certainly garbed in western casual dress.
    The question is why a western government, which purports to support the equality of women as human beings, does sweet FA to stamp out this "cultural" more, alongside forced marriage, FGM, sharia law and unofficial polygamy, all of which militate against the wellbeing and dignity of women.
    Couldn't be that tip-toeing politicians are frightened of upsetting the men, could it? Whatever the reason, politicians and the establishment are colluding in the subjugation of voiceless women in a so-called enlightened (discuss) and developed country.

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